With a sigh, I look around my quarters. There’s the depression in the center where I sleep and, according to my friends, the Sarkarnii like sleep in their dragon form, which is why the thing is rounded, to accommodate their great bulk. There’s a bathroom to the rear, and above me there are sky lights which have shields over the top I can open or close. I’m always worried something might look in, so mostly I have them closed.
It is quite lonely, but I don’t mind lonely so much.
Nothing to give me a scare or to send my heart racing and adrenaline rushing through my veins. No loud noises or voices. It’s generally pleasant. But, on occasions, I miss living with my friends. Maybe today is the day I go out and don’t actively run away from the Sarkarnii warriors I share my air with.
Having made a decision and before I change my mind, I put my things in a bag and march out of my quarters. Once in the passage outside, there is the sound of Sarkarnii voices, and I very, very nearly retreat. But today I am not going to let my mouse win.
Today I am going to let her roar instead. Probably.
I set off to the pools with a renewed determination, one which comes screeching to a sudden halt when I’m faced with two great big Sarkarnii warriors who regard me with interest.
“Are you here to use the aquiums?” one of them says. He has purple and blue scales which have an iridescent pink hue to them.
His friend, who has red scales with a gold sheen, bares his fangs. I think he might be trying to smile, but I’m not sure and I shrink against the wall.
“Y…yes.” I stumble over the tiny word.
“They’re busy, little one,” the red Sarkarnii says. “Too busy for you. You’ll likely end up squashed.”
“Oh.”
“There’s another one, one most of us don’t use because it is small,” the purple Sarkarnii says. “But it would be the perfect size for your little form.”
The thing about the Sarkarnii is, if they’re not attracted to you, then they literally don’t have any interest at all. A human man might have his gaze rake over me, but the warrior simply gazes at my face, his head cocked a little on one side, like an inquisitive puppy. He has no interest in me or my body or anything other than being helpful.
“It is. The aquium will be empty for you, female.” The red one bares his fangs again.
He is definitely trying to smile and not being great at it.
“Which way?” I force out the words.
“That way,” Purple Sarkarnii says, pointing vaguely with his finger at the other side of the large atrium filled with vegetation. “It’s not far. You can’t miss it.”
I don’t ask any further questions, instead thankfully my legs are moving swiftly, carrying me away from this interaction and away from any more Sarkarnii fang-filled smiles.
My desire to visit the pool, or the aquium as they call them, has diminished, but I don’t want to go back, I can’t bear having to pass the warriors again. It looks like I’m going to have to see my trip through to the end.
DEUS
I groan as I roll onto my stomach. The stench of old meat hits me. My scales itch like crazy because I’m due a shed, but I know Darax will not release me to an aquium any time soon.
He’d prefer to let me suffer a shed without any assistance. Letting my skin hang in shreds around me like a thousand tails.
I suppose I can’t blame him for his ire. I did blame him for the death of my mate. I did sabotage his ship and steal his own mate. I did sell out the Sarkarnii to the mad female who wanted to take control of them all.
But then I’d do anything to see Dylia again. One last time. To press her to me. To inhale her scent once more.
Even give up my own brother. That’s what I thought. It’s what drove me.
I was wrong.
If I saw her again, I’d have to tell her I failed, not just her but all my female crew, all the females within the fleet. Had I not angered the Ulep, we might have never ended up in this galaxy, on this planet, where the sickness took nearly all of our females, including my mate.
How I feel, how my mind rages and then drops me into a deep, dark hole. It’s all my doing. I have no one to blame but myself.
And it’s the reason I’m locked up, dosed with paraxio to stop my shift, and in a cell where I couldn’t shift even if I wanted to. Not without becoming the first ever Sarkarnii cube.
Nev Darax. I know he’s been waiting for this opportunity ever since I got out the first time. Brother or not, he isn’t going to let my slight against him and his mate go unpunished. It matters not I was responsible, before my mate perished, for helping create most of what he now resides in. He owes his current lifestyle to me, but that is not going to bother Darax in the slightest.
